A hashtag that started as a complaint about ethics in video-game journalism has spawned a movement aimed at attacking and harassing female journalists, developers and others — and the same fuel that allows positive social-media campaigns to go viral has fanned the flames of violence

It’s two days until the cream of London’s developer community descend on The Vault at Old Billingsgate for 24 hours of pizza-fuelled coding. I will be your Hackmaster for the weekend, along with TechCrunch’s very own Sam O’Keefe. To get your salivary glands racing, here’s a list of the API workshops and sponsor prizes that will be running at the event…

An opt-in kill switch, like the one Google rolled out Wednesday, is great for damage control (though many of the features were already available to savvy users through Android Device Manager ). But opt-in does nothing for deterrence. Not enough users enable the optional feature, so thieves still think they have a good chance of nabbing a vulnerable phone — and yours, even if it’s safe, might be targeted anyway. Google’s kill switch is also weakened because it’s only in effect when the screen is locked, meaning it can be disabled by a thief who snatches a phone from someone who’s using it and knows to keep it from locking.

The overall design is largely the same, with slim bezels on the side and slightly larger ones at the top and bottom. The original iPad Air was heralded for being as thin as a pencil; the iPad Air 2 is 18 percent thinner, coming in at a ridiculously skinny 6.1mm.

According to Re/code , Apple has plans to stop selling Fitbit activity tracking devices in stores, as it prepares to launch its first wearable, the Apple Watch in the early part of 2015. Unfortunately, the details on why this is happening are still unknown, but recent events could certainly play a role.

Google should be seen as the consumer’s friend in new technologies. During the 20th century, television was broadcast over the air using analog technologies and paid for by advertisers. All the consumer had to buy was the TV. More recently, television has moved to cable and other pay forms, such as digital streaming (which required broadband). Google wants to make it cheap to connect to the Internet, because Google makes money through advertising directed to people using the Internet. For the average consumer (who does not have unlimited funds to pay cable TV and Internet service providers) it makes sense to trade off the annoyance of advertising in exchange for a less expensive connection service.

**Testing was conducted by Google using pre-production Nexus 6 devices and
software. Talk time tests used default settings with Wi-Fi off and LTE on. Standby
time tests used default settings with LTE on and Wi-Fi on. Wi-Fi internet tests had
Airplane Mode on with Wi-Fi connected to a test access point, while loading three
popular websites cached on a local server. The Nexus 6 loaded a page, waited 40
seconds, and then loaded a page from the next site. LTE internet tests had Wi-Fi
off and LTE on, and used the same testing method as the Wi-Fi internet tests.

While Lenovo will keep its primary smartphone business which sells to consumers via carriers and retail stores, the new business — which does not yet have a name — will adopt an internet-only sales model for selling to consumers. It isn’t clear whether this business will sell phones using the same flash sales model favored by Xiaomi, but Lenovo is aiming to cash in on some of the buzz and excitement that Xiaomi has generated with its fun ( and perhaps even cult ) approach to online marketing and sales.

Will.i.am has just revealed the Puls at Dreamforce 2014, a smartwatch that doesn't need to be tethered to a phone to send texts, emails or make and take phone calls. In fact, Will kept saying it's not a watch, because smartwatches don't typically come with SIM cards, which the Puls does have, along with speakers and a touchscreen display that curves along with its body, making the device look more like a cuff than a traditional watch. The Puls (a product out of his wearable tech company, i.am+) has 16GB of storage onboard, 1GB of RAM, GPS, a battery that goes around the bracelet, pedometer and accelerometer, all powered by an Android-based platform and a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It connects to the internet not only via WiFi, but also via 3G, which means it has carrier partners: the Puls works with AT&T in the US and O2 in the UK.

We're already halfway through new game season, and the PlayStation 4 library is looking mighty rich! We've got Destiny . We've got Driveclub . We've got Alien: Isolation and The Evil Within and InFamous: First Light . If you don't have a PS4 but still want to get in on this action, we've got a plum deal for you.
Joystiq, Massively, and WoW Insider have teamed up with PenFed to give away a new PlayStation 4. All you have to do to enter is use the Rafflecopter widget below before the contest comes to a close on Tuesday, October 21st, at 11:59 a.m. EDT. Complete rules are after the break!

An app that really demonstrates what the iPhone is capable of, HippoRemote acts as a remote control for your PC, Mac or Apple TV. It's pretty smart as a companion device, especially if you have a laptop or desktop hooked up to your TV. The touchpad on it controls the mouse, there are programmable macros for certain actions, and it's a snap to set up. If you can't afford the price tag, or don't need all that functionality, then Apple's free Remote app also works quite well for controlling an Apple TV or iTunes.

The problem with that reactor? It doesn’t exist yet. “Some key parts of the prototype are theoretical and not yet proven,” says Nathan Gilliland, CEO of Canadian fusion company General Fusion. And it’s not as if Lockheed is the only one trying to crack fusion: While past efforts have been dominated by government labs, technological advances and venture capital are making for “a groundswell of ideas for more practical fusion technologies, mostly from the private sector,” says Gilliland. VC-backed companies like Tri Alpha, Helion, and Gilliland’s General Fusion are working on their own concepts and prototypes. So far McGuire’s team has built a structure—a few meters long by a meter in diameter—to test its plasma confinement claims. If they can iterate fast enough, they may just be the first to get to a functional nuclear reactor… probably in about 10 years.

The newest iPads should pack some cool new features , like fingerprint-sensing Touch ID from the iPhone, and perhaps a super-skinny redesign for the iPad Air . And the iMac isn't the only Apple computer rumored to have retina in its sights; the MacBook Air is way overdue for a more pixel-packed display as well. Apple TV could be the wild card, especially as recent code indicates it could be the hub for Apple's smart home visions of the future.

Still, the tagline for tomorrow's event is "It's been way too long." We expect to see more updated Apple hardware in addition to the iPad Air and iPad Mini, especially since other product lines haven't gotten any attention for a couple of years. In the video above, IGN editors Alaina Yee and Alex Roth sat down to discuss which forgotten Apple products we'd like to see updated.

At a launch event on Thursday, Chief Executive Tim Cook called Apple's new line-up, which includes a new iMac computer with a "5K retina" or high-end display, the company's best ever. But analysts say Apple may struggle to arouse the same passion for its tablets as in past years among consumers faced with an abundance of hand-held, touch-screen devices.

Today we all live and work in the Internet Century, where technology is roiling the business landscape, and the pace of change is only accelerating.
In their new book How Google Works, Google Executive Chairman and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former SVP of Products Jonathan Rosenberg share the lessons they learned over the course of a decade running Google.
Covering topics including corporate culture, strategy, talent, decision-making, communication, innovation, and dealing with disruption, the authors illustrate management maxims with numerous insider anecdotes from Google’s history.
In an era when everything is speeding up, the best way for businesses to succeed is to attract smart-creative people and give them an environment where they can thrive at scale. How Google Works is a new book that explains how to do just that.
This is a visual preview of How Google Works. You can pick up a copy of the book at www.howgoogleworks.net

The Apple iPad, formerly referred to as the Apple Tablet, is a touch-pad tablet computer announced in January 2010, and released in April 2010. It has internet capabilities running on either WiFi or 3G, and offers an optional dock with a full size mechanical keyboard.
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. primarily as a platform for audio-visual media …

Apple has released a new version of its iMac desktop computer at an event in California, with a 27in retina display marking its first significant update since 2011. It will go on sale today, starting at $2,499.

It is becoming more expensive to run Google. The company’s earnings report details its increasing cost base: “Operating expenses, other than cost of revenues, were $6.10 billion in the third quarter of 2014, or 37% of revenues, compared to $4.58 billion in the third quarter of 2013, or 33% of revenues.” Put another way: Building out new revenue streams, and investing in future products that won’t monetize for some time isn’t cheap.

Apple accidentally hinted at a "Mid 2014" Mac mini earlier this year, and now the company is finally ready to refresh its miniature Mac. While the Mac mini hasn’t been updated for two years, today’s refresh improves on the specifications significantly. The new Mac Mini includes fourth-generation Intel Core processors, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, and Intel Iris and HD Graphics 5000 options. "It's the world's most energy efficient desktop computer," says Apple's Phil Schiller. Apple's latest Mac mini ships today and starts from $499.

The new Apple sim in the iPad Air 2 means users in the US or UK do not need to get a sim card from a mobile phone providers, but can sign up directly for services from the device - and use the same sim in different countries with different providers.

As for the future of NGINX, Robertson told me that one of the main trends he is seeing is application level networking functionality “moving inherently into the application and away from the underlying infrastructure and network.” “The advent of cloud environments, devops teams and technology such as Linux containers are all driving us to true application abstraction. It’s time for the application functionality that’s been tied to the network in the past to be abstracted,” he said. While web servers are at the core of this trend, load balancing, caching, media streaming and security are also a major part of delivering applications. Unsurprisingly, NGINX offers most of this functionality already.

"For me, the certification is a joke," Dev Bootcamp founder Shereef Bishay told me in an interview last November. "I really don't think we should be in the business of certifying." Bishay didn't respond to a recent email request for an interview. But safe to say, with an initiative that bears a name like the GA Credentialing Network, it's unlikely Dev Bootcamp will encourage its students to pursue the credential.

Up to 72 percent of the private, short-term New York City rentals analyzed over that time period were illegal, and Airbnb’s presence in the city significantly cuts into the long-term rental housing market, according to the office’s analysis , which was released Thursday.

At Apple’s Town Hall event today, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering said the company will restore the Camera Roll to its Photos app as part of the updates to iOS 8.1.

The future is represented as well with innovative talks from Usman Haque, the founding partner of Umbrellium and Thingful.net, on how we will map the internet of things, and a presentation from Chris Harrison at Carnegie Mellon University on new user interfaces. Drone lovers will hear from Chris Anderson, the co-founder and CEO of 3D Robotics and founder of DIY Drones, while the network nerds can get details on Facebook’s Internet.org efforts from Chris Weasler, director of global connectivity at the social network, and Qualcomm’s plans to network at both a wide scale and a smaller scale from Dr. Murthy Renduchintala, executive vice president of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and co-president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. We even cover smart cities, privacy, security, advertising, wearables and the connected car.

The launch of Yosemite comes at a time when Microsoft is starting to refine its OS experience with Windows 10. Where Yosemite mostly refines the features you already have, Windows 10 seems to still be trying to get the "OS anywhere" concept right. At this early stage, there's not much to talk about with Windows 10 due out sometime in the second half of next year, but from the technical preview we know the Smart Menu will finally make its return in a form that people will appreciate from earlier versions. In other words, Apple continues to push forward making current features better, while Microsoft seems to be correcting past mistakes.

The 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display ships today and starts at $2,499. Pricing appeared to remain the same for iMacs without the upgraded display, with the 27-inch starting at $1,799 and the 21.5-inch iMac starting at $1,099.

Oh, so the prospect of some new iPads and refreshed Macs wasn't enough for you? How about the chance to take OS X Yosemite for a spin? As expected, Apple confirmed that you'll be able to download and install Yosemite for free later today -- just keep an eye on the Mac App Store for your chance to play with what developers and beta testers have been perfecting for months. Aside from Yosemite's flatter design, features of note include Continuity (which basically blurs the line between your Mac and your iDevices), smarter Spotlight searching and total redesigns for native apps like Mail and Safari. (Sadly, you won't get access to Stephen Colbert's phone number like Craig Federighi did.) We'll keep you posted on when you can actually take the plunge, but in the meantime, take a peek at our in-depth Yosemite preview to give you one last taste of what to expect before the digital download floodgates open.

Today we know that users will be able to take their Apple mobile devices to any of those retail locations and begin using Apple Pay to shop, potentially finally kicking off a new era of mobile payments in the U.S. Although there's no NFC in the new iPads announced today, users will be able to use Apple Pay online via various apps.

Apple has announced a new version of its iMac desktop computer complete with a high-resolution Retina display. The new model has what Apple says is the "world's highest resolution display", at 5120 x 2880 pixels on a 27-inch screen. Prior to this, the highest resolution iMac was the 27-inch version, which has a 2560 x 1440 pixel display. Apple notes that it has seven times as many pixels as an HD TV, with 14.7 million in total. It's also 67 percent more pixels than 4K displays, and Apple is calling it a Retina 5K display.

Netflix attributes the miss to new prices and the fading of the positive reaction to its hit series “Orange is the New Black” before the third quarter. “As best we can tell, the primary cause is the slightly higher prices we now have compared to a year ago. Slightly higher prices result in slightly less growth, other things being equal, and this is manifested more clearly in higher adoption markets such as the US,” the company said.

The service, called CBS All Access , is priced at $5.99 a month and is untethered to any pay-TV subscription. It will offer thousands of episodes from the current season, previous seasons and classic shows on demand, as well as the ability to stream local CBS stations live in 14 of the largest US markets at launch, the company said. (CNET is owned by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.)

As you prepare for your flight to London for TC Disrupt I will encourage you – nay, implore you – to join me in Wroclaw and Krakow before and after the main event in the UK. I will be speaking at TechSaturdays in Wroclaw on Saturday, October 18 where we’ll hold a small pitch-off. The winner will get a Start-up Alley table at TC Disrupt in any city (including London if you can make it). After Disrupt I’ll be in Krakow for GeekWeek Krakow during the weekend of October 25.

PC, Mac and Linux. Also coming to PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, Xbox 360 and PS3
A pterodactyl, a wizard and Thomas Jefferson walk into a bar that exclusively serves candy. No, this isn't the set-up for an old-school joke; this is Costume Quest 2 from Double Fine, and it is a bag bursting at the seams with strange and charming humor. Unfortunately, it's also a shallow bag, lacking variety and depth.
This is a snack of a game; easily consumed and enjoyable while it lasts, but packed mostly with sugar and little else. Still, that sweetness is addictive, and it's okay to binge every now and then. Costume Quest 2
Despite featuring a plot revolving around special talismans, wizards, monsters from another dimension and time travel, Costume Quest 2 is pretty simple at its (caramel apple) core: the town's local madman dentist has gone back in time and set into motion a series of events that results in the criminalization of candy, costumes and Halloween. It's up to brother-and-sister team Wren and Reynold to stop him, a goal they pursue via turn-based battles where the costumes they wear turn them into powerful warriors.

The idea behind Handoff and apps is that you can launch an app on one device and then, when you’re in range of another, continue your work on that other device. For example, you might be working on a long note on your iPhone and, walking into your home office, choose to finish your work within your Mac’s version of Notes. Likewise, you can hand off apps between iOS devices—start work on an iPod touch and then hand it off to your iPad.

The new Google Translate Chrome Extension lets you highlight just the text you want to translate. Just select the text and either click the Translate icon or right click on the selected text and select “Google Translate.” If you click on the translate button in the upper right hand corner of Chrome the extension will translate the entire page.

Netflix Inc. said its recent price increases contributed to a disappointing number of new users in the third quarter, a harbinger of slowing U.S. growth even as the online video-streaming company prepares to face a new challenge from rival HBO.

Leor Grebler has always been a fan of science fiction. When the young Canadian engineer went looking for a company idea a few years ago, he felt that current technology had become too distracting and that there needed to be a better way of making technology integrate into our lives more seamlessly.

Although we didn’t get any clarification about when Apple Watch will hit the market — it’s still scheduled for “early 2015″ — Cook said the WatchKit software development kit will be released to developers in November 2014. That gives developers a few months to get apps ready before the watch launches next year.

People used to wash their own cars, until car washes started opening up and made it way easier not to. The same is true for painting the interior of your home. Almost anyone can do it, but almost no one wants to.

But today’s rollout brings additional recipes which let you query deeper into Twitter’s stream, instead of only focusing on your own actions. These new triggers are far more useful, too. They can serve as a valuable research tool, allowing to you to do things like track a hashtag or keyword and turn that into a spreadsheet of tweets, or input that info into Slack. You can also configure Twitter (via IFTTT) to alert you to things going on nearby, or set up a digest of tweets, IFTTT suggests.

The new iPads — expected to be the a second-edition Apple iPad Air and a second-edition iPad mini with retina display — will likely resemble the iPhone 6. I suspect the Gorilla Glass displays will meet the anodized aluminum case in a similarly seamless way. However, don't expect either iPad to get much slimmer; each is currently only 0.02-inch thicker than the iPhone 6 and 0.01-inch thicker than the 6 Plus. Apple probably won’t want to give up that sliver of battery, which on a device as large as an iPad can account for an hour or more extra battery life. What’s more, if Apple can avoid having the iSight camera stick out of the case, I think it will.

From 10 AM Pacific time on Thursday, October 16 until sometime Sunday/Monday you can install and play ten different titles on Steam for absolutely zero cost. This is by far the largest free weekend Valve's ever implemented, and it comes with some accompanying price cuts—each of the ten games will also be on sale, to entice you to buy and keep playing after your access ends.